MS Excel Cell Alignment
Ok, so now that we all know what cell alignment is and why we should all know how to control it, let’s get to the actual aligning.
The first thing you need to do is to select the cell(s) that you want to format. You can select a single cell, highlight a group of cells, select entire row(s) / column(s) or the entire worksheet. It’s all… Continue reading
Align It Your Way
Think about the MS Excel files you have and the way the data is placed in the cells.
Ever find yourself sitting back thinking “That spacing looks all funny”?
Yeah, me too.
I just can’t stand it when titles look strange or when I have some large amounts of text in some cells and small data in others on the same line. I mean, the small… Continue reading
Show Me More Tabs Please
So, you’ve got a pretty large Excel workbook—lots of worksheets—and you find you’re spending a ton of time scrolling back and forth between the different sheets.
Some people like to use the old Ctrl + Page Up / Down to navigate between their sheets and some prefer the old “click on the tab” method.
The only problem with the click on the tab idea is… Continue reading
Super Quick Excel Charts
That’s right, not just a quick way to Excel charts—but a super quick way to an Excel chart.
In fact, in just two quick steps you too can have a beautiful graph of your data.
Ready?
1. Select a cell in the data.
2. Hit the F11 key.
Poof!
Instantly Excel creates a chart sheet with the data already in column form.
If you’re looking for… Continue reading
Outline It Now!
Ever find yourself working in MS Excel and need a quick outline to a cell or group of cells?
You could go through the hassle of the whole “hands off the keyboard and onto the mouse” thing or…
You could highlight the cells to be outlined and try Ctrl + Shift + &.
Yep, that ‘s it—three simple little keys do the trick!
Want to remove the… Continue reading
Cell References in MS Excel
Ever notice that when you’re copying a formula in MS Excel the cell references in the formula will change?
I’m sure you have. They do this because a formula uses the cell addresses as relative cell references. The cell names are “directions” for the cells to use in the formula. The cell containing the formula is the starting point for the “directions”.
This is awesome… Continue reading
Excel Cells Into MS Word
Have you ever tried to copy and paste cells from Excel to Word?
What happened?
I bet you went to Excel, highlighted the cells, copied the cells, went to Word, pasted the cells and poof! There they were.
Sounds great, doesn’t’ it?
Yeah, and it can be, but, if you’re using version 97 then there are some slight problems.
You might notice that you can’t… Continue reading
Excel Worksheet Protection
So, we’re all looking to protect our worksheets from changes—changes others may make or changes we may accidentally make.
Since we’re all here for the same thing, let’s get right to it.
To protect your entire worksheet from changes you need to go to the Tools menu, Protection submenu, Protect Sheet choice.
The Protect Sheet window will open – giving you choices as to what to… Continue reading
No Touch My Cells!
OK, so maybe that’s the way my nephew would phrase it, but isn’t that what we mean when we’re looking to keep an Excel worksheet from being changed?
You know what I mean, the file that others have to see but shouldn’t touch.
Or… maybe it’s you who is the culprit!
Ever find that you’ve changed a worksheet that you never meant to alter?
Yeah, me… Continue reading
Excel Drag & Drop Between Worksheets
So, you’ve got some data in an Excel worksheet that you need to move to a new location.
Within the same sheet—no problem.
I’m positive that we all know about highlighting the data to be moved and then using the mouse arrow on the very edge of the selected cell(s) to click and drag the data to a new location.
Quick, easy—what could be… Continue reading
To Update Or Not To Update
Did you know that there’s a choice as to how you insert the date or time into an Excel worksheet?
Did you know that you could choose to have the date or time entered as a piece of data that doesn’t change or as a field that will be updated when you open the file or press the F9 key?
Well, as you can… Continue reading
Extending Your Chart Data
So, you’ve got a beautiful Excel chart (known to some of you as a graph) and it’s the perfect thing to display your data.
It’s got all the labels, colors, titles and every other aspect any good chart would have… but of all the bad luck, now you’ve got to start over.
Why, you ask?
Well, unfortunately you’ve got more data to add to the chart.… Continue reading
Have Excel Help With The Proofreading
So, you’ve just entered a formula into an MS Excel cell and you get this…
#NAME?
Now what’s that?
Well, it turns out that you’re looking at Excel’s way of letting you know that you’ve used a name Excel doesn’t recognize.
For me it most commonly means that I’ve entered the name of a function with a typo and now Excel is confused.
If… Continue reading
Going To The Edge
Are you an Excel user who often works with huge ranges of data?
Sort of annoying when you’re trying to move from one end of the range to the other, isn’t it?
You can scroll for what feels like an eternity (and then probably pass the end of the data up anyway) or hit the Page Up / Down key about “a million” times. But no… Continue reading
MS Excel Worksheets on Demand
Ever notice that an Excel workbook opens with many worksheets? (I believe my program was initially set somewhere around 10 sheets.)
Have you ever wished that a new workbook would open with more worksheets? Less?
Yep, you’ve got it. There’s a way to change the default number of worksheets. Another one of those “That was so easy, why didn’t I know about that before?” items.… Continue reading
Question: I hear the terms “workbook” and “worksheet” used frequently when people discuss MS Excel. What exactly is a workbook? A worksheet? Is there a difference?
Well, to begin with, there is definitely a difference. (But you knew that, didn’t you?)
A workbook is the MS Excel file in which you enter and store related data.
A worksheet (also known as a spreadsheet) is a collection of cells on a… Continue reading
Navigate Cells Without Deselecting
So… you’ve got a fairly large range of cells selected in MS Excel and you’re just about to move them, or copy, or print—whatever—but, oh no!
Right there, in the middle of the data, you’ve noticed something that needs to be changed.
Rats!
You know that this means you’ve got to lose the data selection in order to get into that cell and make the changes.… Continue reading
Selection Direction
Have you ever been working in MS Excel and found yourself wishing that the cell selection would go in some other direction after you hit the Enter key?
Let’s face it, sometimes the data needs to be entered in rows, not columns.
Never fear! A couple of clicks and bingo, you’ve changed the direction the Enter key moves the cell selection.
Wanna know how?
Sure you do.
To… Continue reading
Seeing The Roots
Have you ever found yourself working on a complicated Excel formula and trying to decipher where it all comes from?
I mean, this formula references another cell but when you get there you find another formula that references yet another cell. And so it goes… on and on. (These endless cells are the “roots” of the formula in question.)
Frustrated?
You bet.
Looking for a way to… Continue reading
MS Excel: Headers & Footers Demystified—Part 2
Let’s continue on our journey through the world of headers and footers. The train stops next at the MS Excel station.
To access headers and footers in Excel, you will go to the View menu, Header and Footer choice.
The Page Setup window will open with the Header/Footer tab already selected.
The top preview box shows the header for the worksheet(s) currently… Continue reading
Why Can’t They All Look That Way?
Ever asked yourself that question as you’re looking at your latest Excel chart masterpiece?
I mean, you’ve just spent time creating a chart and it’s just gorgeous!
You’ve got the colors, fonts, text alignment… all of it! It’s just perfect.
Too bad you’ll have to reset all those things for the next set of data.
Or… maybe not.
What if we could save… Continue reading
See More Tabs
Do you find yourself constantly scrolling through the tabs of your large Excel workbooks?
Tired of the old Page Up / Down thing to move through the seemingly endless sheets?
Or, maybe you’re someone who uses the “right click” trick on sheet tab scroll buttons and then selects your destination from the worksheets in the list?
All are valid ideas—I use many of them frequently, but I… Continue reading
Quick and Complete Worksheet Copying
Ever try to copy an Excel worksheet formatting, data, header, footer and all?
Most Excel users have tried at one time or another. Often when I talk to people, I find that they have varying levels of success. Some can copy only the data. Others have a little more success and can get the data and the formatting copied to a new sheet.
The elusive… Continue reading
Copying Excel Worksheets—Including The Formatting!
Have you ever tried to copy the contents of one MS Excel worksheet to another only to find that when you’re done pasting you’ve lost all your column and row formatting (such as column width and row heights)? How much time do you lose reformatting all those worksheets?
You just know there has to be an easier way, and of course, there is 
To… Continue reading
Excel Word Wrap For Many Cells
So, you’ve got a whole range of cells with a lot of text?
Maybe you’ve got a row or column of titles and the whole Alt + Enter thing would just take way too much time. I mean, who wants to go through cell by cell to get the word wrap set?
Not me either!
So what now?
Believe it or not, it’s as… Continue reading
MS Excel Wrapping In A Single Cell
We’ve all had them. They’re everywhere. They’re impossible to kill and hard to shrink. What am I talking about? (Sometimes I wonder about that myself.)
I’m talking about those column or row titles in Excel that are so long they’re awkward.
If you stretch the column width to accommodate the whole title, then the two-digit number looks ridiculous in the 3-inch wide column.… Continue reading
Quick Excel Copying With Keys
If you’re looking to do some copy / paste work in Excel with adjacent cells, then here’s a quick trick for you.
If you want to copy the information in the cell immediately above use Ctrl + D.
Try it…
Whatever is in the cell above is immediately copied into the selected cell.
Need the information transferred into more that one cell?
Highlight all the… Continue reading
